Bottom Line: Final Draft is the software you need if you are in the screenwriting business or aspire to be. It has all the tools you need to get the script right, both from a story perspective and a technical one.

Bottom Line: PowerPoint is a powerhouse among presentation apps. With real-time co-authoring, new design suggestions, and other tools for supporting slideshow creators, it remains the best in its class.

Bottom Line: When it comes to online office suites, Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides has the best balance of speed and power, and the best collaboration features, too. It lacks a few features offered by Microsoft Office 365, but it was also faster to load and save in our testing.

Bottom Line: G Suite offers most of the power and flexibility of its main office-suite rival, Microsoft Office 365. Its entirely cloud-based tools can be used from any desktop or mobile platform, but they lack the full power of desktop apps.

Bottom Line: Office 365 gets you the best productivity software available today, including full installations of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and more, for up to five Windows and Mac desktops. You also get a slew of mobile apps, 1TB of online storage, and real-time collaboration.

Bottom Line: Unique and dynamic, Prezi is free-form presentation software that's terrific for informal and unstructured information. But if you're looking for a slide-based alternative to PowerPoint, this isn't it.

Bottom Line: Word for iPad is the best tablet-based word processor. On the iPad Pro, with Apple's Smart Keyboard, it's the next best thing to full-scale word processing on a laptop. Still, advanced users will chafe at its limitations.

Bottom Line: Google Slides is a reliable and free presentation app. It has strong collaboration capabilities, including the option to take audience questions as you present, but is missing a few features found in PowerPoint.

Bottom Line: Microsoft Office remains the mightiest productivity suite you can get, with strong collaboration features added in the latest version. Users of Office 2013 won't need any retraining, and new features are slotted smoothly in with the old.

Bottom Line: LibreOffice is free and open-source, opens almost any legacy document, and is the only office suite available on all major desktop platforms. What it lacks is the smooth interface and stability of its paid competitors.

Bottom Line: With PowToon, anyone can make video animations instead of drab slide decks to use for presentations, training, and more. You don't have to be an expert in video editing, but you do need deep pockets.

Bottom Line: Microsoft OneNote is a free note-taking and syncing app that works on a variety of devices, including Macs. It's not the North Star of note-taking apps, but it squarely takes second place.

Bottom Line: Despite some missing, the latest version of Apple's category-leading presentation app remains the most powerful and easiest to use on any platform, and is now completely cross-platform compatible between OS X and iOS. Advanced users of the older version should probably wait to upgrade until all missing features are restored.